


Waiting

by SquidSoup



Category: MÄR - Märchen Awakens Romance
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 10:19:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9319376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquidSoup/pseuds/SquidSoup
Summary: Six years is a long time to wait.





	

Sound of gravel against their shoes blending with the howling wind through the trees. For so many hours it had filled Rolan’s ears with the same ease the night’s darkness filled his eyes; and he entertained himself by playing with his jacket’s buttons and his hair’s braids as quietly as possible with his free hand. The right hand clutched a larger, bony hand, of which he hadn’t let go since their walk had started hours ago.

Conversations with the tall person happened in which he only heard his own voice ask the questions that ate away his conscience, and their answers sounded like the sea waves whispering in human voice, and then he’d realize the conversations happened only inside him and the person guiding him had not uttered a word the entire night.

It was better that way; as much as he wanted to ask and wonder and seek comfort, Rolan knew it was not the time for any of him. His initial attempt to ask what they would do now was met with a disinterested “Who knows” and that was the end of it.

And yet Peta had been nothing but kind to him, still holding on to his small hand despite the option to just leave him behind and disappear with the same ease the trees did in the horizon. And they had to be, if Phantom was as close to them as it seemed (and Phantom was nothing but the kindest person in the world to Rolan, after all).

Suddenly Peta stopped on the spot and Rolan’s tiny body crashed against them. He looked around following their gaze, looking for whatever had them stop, and then heard their first words of the day.

“Soon it will be morning. It wouldn’t be normal for people to venture into a forest without prey animals and useless wood” they placed their free hand on a nearby tree “but if we happen to be near a town or something we’re screwed.”

Rolan felt chills down his spine at the implications of that. It was only two days ago that he had held onto Peta without looking back to Phantom’s corpse, and he could perfectly recall the people’s cheering. He instinctively shifted close to Peta, almost hugging them (but keeping enough distance out of fear) and felt their hand leave his and pet his head.

“If we’re lucky, that won’t be the case” –Peta continued- “And as long as it’s one or a few people I can strike them down long enough for us to run away.”

They went around a couple of trees followed by Rolan, and found one with a shape shallow enough and a size big enough to sit under it side by side. Rolan pulled up their hood and curled up with his face against his knees to block the light that would soon fill the sky. He fell asleep before it even appeared.

  

* * *

 

 

It was days later until either of them talked again, when Rolan became unable to walk and they crawled on the inside of a dead tree, this time shallower and bigger than the others they had slept against (did Peta sleep? Rolan didn’t know.)

He recalled Peta mentioning beforehand that they should not set fire for the time being, as it would attract unwanted attention. Fire was the last thing Rolan wanted to see at the moment, as they felt their body was burning enough by its own. Their resting place was humid and hosted a smell that made Peta scrunch their nose, the sight of which made Rolan laugh for the first time in too long.

It was a small quiet laugh, and he stopped almost as fast as he started. Fortunately for him, it only earned an unamused glance before they shifted to stare outside of the tree, just in case of anything. Rolan closed his eyes and once again drifted to sleep with uncanny immediateness.

Too many hours later he awoke, his body now feeling as light as the rain surrounding them. His eyes got used to the misty twilight and saw Peta sleep for the first time. A sense of alertness came from them, as if they could crack an eye open and stare back at him with the minimal provocation. Rolan was afraid of them for the first time, and tried to make himself blend with the sound of the rain as to not awaken their ire (he didn’t, and they resumed their wandering soon enough with no problem.)

 

* * *

 

The nights passed by, walking in the dark and sleeping as farther away from the sun as possible, eating the little forest vegetation that could be consumed without repercussions (Peta seemed to know them all too well), always alert; so much that Rolan had managed to forget all about the reason he was there in the first place.

It wasn’t until he was sitting at the second floor of an abandoned house that he started to remember the noise and running towards a dead body and holding onto the nearest person to avoid being whisked away by the crowd, and the outline of Phantom’s body being so real it became an illusion much like his parents’ bodies before and they were there too now, with the world becoming only death and destruction.

For the first time since that day he cried, clutching his head on his hands and coughing from the dust getting on his face all the same.

Rolan forced himself to stop and contain his breath when multiple steps made the wooden stairs creak loud enough to get on the way of the crowd’s cheering, but was relieved to see Peta going up and down, stopping in the middle and testing the noise each step made. They seemingly paid no mind to Rolan’s crying, and that somehow calmed him down.

Sitting there did no good to either of them; he had to be strong, unsure of for what, but strong nevertheless. That was when he realized he had none of his ÄRMs with him, and that they had all been destroyed upon being beaten on his first and only fight of the war.

He slumped down, defeated, and watched Peta inspect the room. There was so much that was torn apart by time and elemental exposure that Rolan couldn’t make out what anything was supposed to be, barring what seemed like a mattress miraculously less worn than it probably should, some empty cabinet and a mirror too clouded to clearly see a reflection.

Peta stood around for a few minutes, with their back to him, before speaking.

“Can you stay on your own?”

Rolan sheepishly nodded.

“Can you stay on your own?” Peta asked again, a hint of impatience creeping in.

“Y-yes!” Rolan hurried to say, snapping out of his daze.

“Good.”

Peta turned around and knelt down to his size, extending their hand; closed in a fist. Rolan extended out his own and received a small assortment of ÄRMs. They were still shining a little despite signs of use showing.

“I don’t know when I’ll be back, but don’t leave this place unless someone else comes” they looked down at the ring now on the child’s finger, still too big for him. “On the meanwhile, become stronger.”

And so he waited, experimenting and invoking the various powers contained in the jewelry. A bracelet that dished out light shards and not much else, the ring that ended up setting his hand on fire, a necklace that did nothing. All weak, and Rolan feared that he had finally been abandoned to his own devices, because he wasn’t strong enough to win a single fight.

And yet he still tried getting results out of them, tried burning and illuminating anything that wasn’t himself, tried doing anything with the necklace, until he passed out of exhaustion on the mattress. Drifting in and out of sleep he wondered how the house had been abandoned just like him. It was now the third time he had been abandoned; and now it was intentional and not because someone died.

Had the house failed to its occupants like him to Phantom? It wouldn’t be lonely now, they could be alone together, he decided. It would be great if it only wasn’t so cold, he thought.

Hours later Peta walked upstairs and observed Rolan, all curled up among feathers that came out of his neck and guarded his sleep, and they smiled to him.

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo this was originally a oneshot but for reasons Im dividign this in two, the next part should come in tomrrow or sometime soon.
> 
> This is set in the six years after the end of the first war games and the second one, as Peta and Rolan wait for Phantom to revive and all that fun stuff. Paphet and other characters stuff to come next chapter hopefully.


End file.
